Railway.



No. 629,568. I Patented July 25, I899. T. J. KING & A. U. BABENDREIER.

RAILWAY.

(Application filed Apr. 8, 1899.)

2 She'ets-Sheet I.

(No Model.)

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1 Patented July 25, 1899. KING &. A. 0. BABENDREIER.

RAILWAY.

(Application filed Apr. 8, 1899.)

2 Sheen-Sheet 2.

(N0 Medal.)

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' U NITED STATES PATENT OFFIC DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

rrinononn J. KING AND ARTHUR 0. BABENDREIER, or WASHINGTON,

RAILWAY.

swarms-Tron forming part of Letters Patent No." 629,568, dated July 25',1899. Application filed AprilB, 1899. Serial No. 712,806. unmade.)

To a wit/m, it may concern.-

Be it known that We, THEODORE J. KING and ARTHUR O. BABENDREIER,citizens of the United States, residing at'Washington, in the Districtof Columbia, have invented new and useful Improvementsin Railways, ofwhich the following is a specification.

Electric and other railways which embrace an underground conduit areordinarily provided at a suitable point with an opening communicatingwith the conduit-slot, the said opening being sufficiently large andbeing intended to permit of the passage of the plow of a car from itsnormal operative position to a point above the surface of the railway,or vice versa. Such an opening, whether situated in the yard or at anintermediate point in the length of a railway, is a menace to the safetyof pedestrians, horses, and vehicles, and. it is therefore highlydesirable that it should be closed except when it is necessary to raisethe plow of a car from or lower it to.

its normal operative position. Our invention contemplates the provisionof a simple and practical closure for an opening such as mentioned andone which is susceptible of being operated either manually orautomatically when it is desired to raise or lower a plow through theopening.

The invention will be fully understood from the following descriptionand claims, when taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, inwhich- Figure 1 is a transverse section of an underground railway,illustrating the pit in which our improvements are arranged. Fig. 2 is aplan View of the same with some parts broken away and others in section.Fig. 3is a transverse section illustrative of the manner in which theclosure is automatically operated by a car device. Fig.4c is a detailsection taken in the plane indicated by line 4 4 of Fig. 3.

Referring by letter to said drawings, A A are the rails, 13 the conduit,and O the slot, of

an underground railway, all of which may be of the ordinary or anyapproved construction.

D is a pit communicating with the conduit B, and E is an opening formedin the surface wall F of the pit and communicating with the slot 0, saidopening being sufficiently large to permit of the upward or downwardpassage of the plow of a car after the manner before described.

Mounted on alongitudinally-disposed shaft G in the pit D are two pairsof levers, alever H'of each pair being keyed to the shaft so as to turntherewith, whilea lever H of each pair is loose on the shaft so as torock thereon. The said levers H H are of the shape best shown in Fig.1that is to say, their upper arms are curved so as to enable the plow ofa car to pass between them when the closure is open, and their lowerarms extend from the shaft G in directions opposite to their upper arms.

I are weights suitably fixed on the lower arms of the levers H H andhaving for their purpose to normally hold said levers in and return themto the position shown in Fig. 1, and J J are gates connected to theupper ends of the levers. These gates J J are of the proportional sizeshown in Fig. 2, and they are designed when the levers H H are in theirnormal position, as shown in Fig. 1, to close the opening E, and therebyremove all liability of a person or anything falling through saidopening into the pit D.

We prefer in practice to provide means whereby the gates J J may beopened either manually or automatically; but it is obvious that whendesired one of these means may be dispensed with and the other alonedepended upon to open the gates. The manual means is best shown in Fig.1 and comprises a shaft K, journaled in suitable supports in the pit D,levers L, fixed on said shaft and extending above and below the same,pitmen M, connecting the upper ends of the levers L and the upper armsof the levers H, pitmen N, connecting the lower ends of the leversL andthe upper arms of the levers H, an arm P,

fixed on the shaft K, and a handle Q, normally resting in a depressionin the cover R of a manhole S and connected bya chain T with the arm P.By reason of this construction when the handle Q is drawn upwardly thelevers H II will be rocked'in opposite directions and the gates J J willbe moved to opposite sides, of the opening E, and said opening will beleft clear for the passage of the plow of a car. When the handle Q isreleased by the operator, the levers and the gates willimmediatelyreturn to their normal position and the opening -E will again be closed.

The manhole S and the cover R, which latter is removable, are providedin order that a workman may readily gain access to the mechanism in thepit when it is necessary to lubricate or repair the same.

The mechanism for effecting the automatic opening of the gates J J isbest, shown in gates J J before the plow reaches the end of the gatescontiguous to the slot.

The automatic opening of the gates J J is effected by the shoe V on amoving car entering between the lugs U. When the straight sides of theshoe reach the lugs U, the gates will have been fully opened, and thecar being stopped the plow may be raised or lowered through the openingE. When the car is started and the shoe passes from between the lugs U,the gates will be immediately closed by the fall of the weights I.

In order to prevent damage to any of the parts in the event of the plowon a moving car reaching the end of the opening E contiguous to the slot0 prior to the gates being opened, the inner corners of the gates atsuch end of the opening are beveled, as shown in Figs. 2 and 4, so as toenable the upper re duced portion of-the plow to open the gatessufliciently to permit said reduced portion to pass between them untilthe car is stopped over the opening E.

Connected to the levers II at the inner edges thereof is a guard-plate Hand connected to the inner edges of the levers H is a similarguard-plate 11 These plates H H are provided in order to prevent theshoes on an electric plow or current-collector from catching against thegates J J or any of the appurtenances thereof as the plow is raisedf\Vhen desirable, ourimproved closure may be employed in conjunction withthe inclined way disclosed in our Letters Patent of April 18, 1899, No.623,248, in which case the opening E and the closure thereof will belocated at the terminal of the underground conduit, as shown in Fig. 2.When the closure is so employed, the guard-plates II II enable anascending plow to open and pass up between the gates in the event of theautomatic or manual gate-opening mechanism failing from any cause towork. The opening E and its closure may, however, be arranged at anypoint, and when desired a plurality of openings E and closures thereformay be provided at various points.

there is no liability of the gates being casually opened they may bevery readily opened by manual labor and are also susceptible of beingautomatically opened in the manner described.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim is- '1. Thecombination with a railway having a conduit provided with a slot, andalso having an opening in its surface wall communicating with the slot,said opening being sufficiently large to permit the upward or downwardpassage of a plow through "the same;' of upright levers fulcrumed at anintermediate point of their length below the surfiace wall of therailway and having their lower arms weighted, and gates fixedlyconnected to and movable with the upper arms of "the levers and adaptedto close the opening in the surface wall of the railway, substantiallyas specified.

2. The combination with a railway having a conduit provided with a slot,and also hav ing an opening in its surface wall communieating with theslot, said opening beingsuflh ciently large to permit the upward or downward passage of a plow through the same; of levers fulcrumed at anintermediate point of their length below the surface wall of the railwayandhavin g their lower arms weighted, gates arranged on the upper armsof the levers, and guide-plates also arranged on said upper arms of thelevers, substantially as specified. l

3. The combination with a railway having a conduit provided with a slotand also having a pit communicating with the conduit and provided in itssurface wall with an opening communicating with the slot, said opening 110 being suificiently large to permit theupward or downward passage of aplow therethrough; of the two pairs of upright levers fulcrumed at anintermediate point of their length in the pit and having their lowerarms weighted, I15 gates connected to the upper armsof the levers andarranged in a plane below the surface wall of the pit, and guard-platesconnectin g the corresponding levers of the pairs, substantially as andfor the purpose set forth.

4. The combination with a railway having a conduit provided witha slotand also having a pit communicating with the conduit and provided in itssurface wall with an opening communicating with the slot, said openingbeing sufliciently large to permit the upward or downward passage of aplow therethrough; of upright levers fulcrumed at an intermediate pointof their length in the pit and having their lower arms weighted, gatesconnected to the upper arms of the levers and arranged in a plane belowthe surface 'wallof the pit, a lever L fulcrumed at an intermediatepoint of its length, a handle connected with said lever L, a pitmanconnecting one arm of the lever L and the upper arm of one gate-bearinglever, and a pitman connecting the other arm of the lever L and theupper arm of the other gate-bearing lever, substantiallyas specified.

5. The combination with a railway having a conduit provided with a slotand also having a pit communicating with the conduit and provided in itssurface wall with an opening communicating with the slot, said openingbeing sufliciently large to permit the upward or downward passage of aplow therethrough of upright levers fulcrumed at an intermediate pointof their length in the pit and having their lower arms weighted, gatescon- THEODORE J. KING. ARTHUR O. BABENDREIER.

Witnesses:

GRAFTON L. MOGILL, JESSIE G. CRONEY.

